Sushi train ad for Purina poised for export to cat-crazy Japan
An ad for Purina’s Fancy Feast brand featuring a party of cats sat around a sushi train is to be exported to cat-crazy Japan.
The ad, made by Sydney’s Banjo Advertising, has amassed more than 160,000 views on Banjo’s YouTube channel and a further 230,000 views via Yahoo! Japan, the country’s most popular search engine, since it aired at the end of February.
The Fancy Feast product exists in Japan but under a different brand name, and Nestle Japan’s marketing director is in discussions with Banjo about reworking the local brand into the ad for the Japanese market.
“I can’t help but think this was a lucky get,” Ryan Barlow, the brand director at Banjo told Mumbrella. “It appears we have inadvertently latched on to the Japanese love of cats and sushi. We didn’t seed the ad. The first thing we knew about was an email from Yahoo! Japan to let us know about its popularity over there.”
There are also discussions about potentially exporting the ad to the US and other markets in Asia.
The ad was shot in two and half days in Auckland and involved 15 cats.
“Cats are usually a nightmare to work with, but the shoot went without a hitch,” said Barlow. “We took some behind the scenes footage just in case things got crazy, but it was actually very boring.”
Credits:
- Creative Director: Georgia Arnott
- Senior Writer: Sean Larkin
- Production Company : Goodoil Films
- Director: Matt Murphy
- Music: Turning Studios
- Producer: Meredyth Judd
Those Kiwi cats are such professionals!
User ID not verified.
@ Jean, if you think the cats are clever you should see the sheep.
I recall this spot got heavily criticised here but is does really resonate with cat lovers, and it doesn’t matter what the non humans think of it.
User ID not verified.
I’m delighted by this TVC every time it airs!
User ID not verified.